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    Mantra Raja

    4.3 (52 reviews)
    Open 11:00 am - 9:00 pm
    Updated 2 weeks ago

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    MANTRA RAJA ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Intimate
    Classy

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    Arnold Palmer and Thai Tea
    Amy M.

    Delicious!!!!!! Plenty of parking, beautifully decorated! Came for lunch and was so pleased!!! I got the Red curry lunch which included soup or salad, egg roll, and rice! It was so affordable! The wait staff were all so accommodating! I'm counting down to my next visit!

    Inside
    Lilian W.

    Mantra Raja is a hidden gem. I believe it's currently the only Thai cuisine restaurant in the Carlsbad area. The restaurant is dim lit, perfect for a romantic date. The four seater tables are also a good fit for families. There's plenty of parking in the private lot. I tried several dishes. Although not the most delicious Thai food I've had, it was still good nonetheless. The pad Thai was on the sweeter side (you can ask for more spice), the pineapple fried rice was fragrant, the yellow curry was lusciously thick from the coconut milk, and the tom kah hit the right sour & savory notes. The way the staff handled situations was very professional and friendly. For example, our Tom Kah was way too sour. We told our waitress and they gladly redid it. In short, the hospitality was fantastic. There were only three tables filled through the duration of my meal. I think this place has a lot of potential, and I really hope more people try their food.

    Tia M.

    Update, they replaced the delivered pad Thai that was missing the items, we dined there today and it was delicious as always. We also ordered yellow curry again and it was delightful as always. We are so full and have plenty leftover for another meal. Great portions this is our pad Thai & curry go to! Workers are so nice and friendly and welcoming as always. Clean with great a/c. Not too cold, perfect temperature inside. We have the toasted app and we had $5 bday reward and $5 in points as well. Wow! How great this restaurant uses the toasted app! You gain points with every visit, just have them scan your toasted app. Let I mentioned before they use quality products and ingredients so you leave happy feeling great. Today they had pretty yellow blue and pink flowers on the table, I love these details. Thank you so much, you are worth the drive!

    Pad See Ew
    Haley T.

    Really enjoyed our first visit! We ordered the Pad See Ew and Pad Thai. Their portions were pretty big and filling. They let you choose your spice level from 1-5. We ended up choosing level 2, and it had a little kick to it, but the food was really good still. Our waitress was friendly and attentive, and the restaurant had a clean, welcoming atmosphere. We'll definitely be back!

    Yellow Curry w/ Chicken Lunch Special
    Ann V.

    I looove Thai Food! Mantra Raja is the place to go to for authentic flavorful food in a really niiice intimate setting. It's easy to get to from the 5 Interstate and when you arrive there's plenty of parking. Once inside, the service from the friendly attentive staff is FANTASTIC. The food from the expert passionate chefs is INCREDIBLE. It's now my "Mantra Raja". I can't wait to go back to try another dish. I highly recommend it to the Yelp Community :-)

    Crispy wontons
    Edward B.

    Great food. Good ambiance of restaurant and great location right next to the 5 freeway at Carlsbad village drive. Service was excellent for our private event. I will be back to try the rest of the menu with my family

    Trash
    Beezus H.

    Nasty, unseasoned rice and chicken. Raisins in the thai fried rice and I have never had raisins in my thai fried rice before. Absolute waste of money I could have stir frief myself. NO FLAVOR

    Forgot what it's called but it's a soup noodle dish.  One of their specialties.  The broth was so flavorful, almost like a curry.
    Amy H.

    Honestly, the Kao Soi noodle dish I ordered was so bomb! I was already planning on my next visit after my first bite! The broth was so flavorful, and the ingredients all feel so fresh! Mango sticky rice was almost perfection, except they did not put toasted sesame on it which I feel it's such a finishing touch to this dish. I can't wait to be back to try other things on the menu! The owner is so sweet and came to say hi to our table. We love going to her tea spot Mantra Sukha. Lovely woman, very kind. The place is cute, their lighting could dim a little though. One area was way too bright so we had to move to a different table. Nonetheless, we will definitely be back! Highly recommend!

    Fresh ginger stir fried with tofu
    Jay B.

    Mantra Raja hosted a Yelp event. I finally was able to attend one of these cool affairs. What a great experience meeting with other Yelpers. There was 20-30 of us that came to taste what Mantra is all about. First of all it is right off the 5 freeway. They share a building with another restaurant El Tejate. The parking lot is in the back. We had a set menu offering us fried wontons with cream cheese and imitation crab meat. It was a good start. They also provided a small Thai iced tea. This was actually pretty good as I ended up having 2 of them. We had the drunken noodles chicken and it was not bad. The fresh ginger stir fry with tofu was ok. I think the star of the show is the yellow curry chicken on top of the rice. I would order this next time for sure. The service was on point and the restaurant was nice and clean. You should add a little heat to the dishes as they served these dishes to us with no spice to accommodate the ones that don't like spicy. We were given a small portion of spicy sauce and you just added how much you want. If you need a quick Thai fix in the Carlsbad area just come here.

    Orange Chicken

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    3 months ago

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    Nok B.

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    4 months ago

    Large menu, good flavor, nice lighting and decor, friendly service. Vegan and gluten free versions.

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    Nok B.

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    5 months ago

    Service was great, food so so. Not in an ideal spot and ambiance was nonexistent Won't go back.

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    Nok B.

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    4 months ago

    Food service and ambiance!! Very very best Thai in north county!! Please go! Every dish is amazing! Thai tea to die for! We love it here!

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    5 months ago

    Food was literally so good and service was amazing. I'd definitely come back and bring more people with me next time! Highly recommend.

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    5 months ago

    I could not recommend Mantra Raja enough. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, and the food is a 10/10! I had a wonderful experience.

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    7 months ago

    Such an amazing restaurant I loved my experience here. Food was delicious and fast and everyone was super friendly!

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    6 months ago

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    Nok B.

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    6 months ago

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    Nok B.

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    6 months ago

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    7 months ago

    Amazing food and service!! Had such a good time here with my friends. Will definitely be coming back!

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    4 months ago

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    Page 2 of 2

    Ask the Community - Mantra Raja

    Aroi Thai - Carlsbad

    Aroi Thai - Carlsbad

    4.4(117 reviews)
    0.0 mi
    $$

    Some friends of ours ate here recently, and suggested that we join them for lunch to try to actual…read moreauthentic Thai food. My wife and I have been searching North County for years for same, to no avail - so we readily accepted. We arrived a few minutes before 1pm - and our first thought was - what a strange location. About a block off of Carlsbad Village Drive, but nothing else really around to drive foot traffic. Our second thought was - ok, where's the entrance? We did a complete loop before finding it, and headed upstairs to the restaurant. And our third thought was - where IS everyone? Total ghost town - and to be honest, at that point, I was pretty sure that this was yet another poor attempt at an authentic Thai restaurant. And - I was wrong. Our friends arrived shortly, and we sat down and perused the menu - even though we all kinda knew what we wanted, we wanted to see what else was out there - and good thing we did, as my wife changed her mind and went with Pumpkin Curry. I, being a total creature of habit, went with Yellow Chicken Curry with no onion - and an appetizer of Chicken Satay. Our friends ordered also, starting with Drunken noodles, another Yellow Curry (with tofu), and Rad Na (pork version). Let me interrupt this with a quick aside - the waitress was absolutely wonderful during the order process. For each entree, she specifically asked the spice level (1-10), and delivered somewhat accordingly. The food started arriving shortly thereafter - and there was a LOT of food arriving! The only nit I had was that, in my demented brain, appetizers show up before the main course. In this case, everything arrived together. That said, the main courses were incredible (and again, HUGE). While I would submit that while I asked for a spice level of 10, I got more of a 4 or 5, but when Thais see blonde hair blued eyed white guys, they tend to assume (usually correctly) that they have no idea what they're asking for. In my case, they were wrong. No biggie, I'm used to it, and next time, will definitely up the ante on the spice issue. My wife LOVED her Pumpkin Curry, and our friends enjoyed their meals as well. They pretty much finished off the Drunken Noodles, so clearly that was a hit. The only other nit that I ran into was the Chicken Satay. These things were HUGE - so much so that I could cut them in half along the length, and make a huge chicken sandwich. I've never seen it done this way - but my wife and I split one and took the rest home - that's how huge they were. The peanut sauce was amazing, as was the Thai Cucumber Salad (actually one of the better ones I've had - in California OR Thailand - it was that good). Bottom line, a worthy discovery, AND they use Door Dash - so we'll be eating Aroi Thai - Carlsbad quite a bit going forward - actually real Thai in North County....outstanding!!!

    Found this place on Yelp and decided to give it a try since I was up in Carlsbad and it's rare that…read moreI'm in the area so I wanted to try something in the neighborhood. This place was located right off the freeway and connected to another Mexican restaurant but they were the only building that was connected with their own lot and kind of rundown like old and dirty which reminded me of Old Town so I'm not sure if that look/feel was intentional since they are the only building there. Inside was still old and rundown but did have a modern feel with the bar seatings and lemon decor. I went in during lunch hours 12pm. There was only 1 host who was also the waiter and server who took care of 3-4 tables at the same time including mine. She did a good job at juggling all tables and came by often enough. Now with the food wait times it seemed like there was only 1 person in the kitchen as well since it took quite awhile for all the foods to come out. It took about 30 minutes after ordering since all 3 tables ordered at the same time. *Beef Boat Noodles - these were just okay. You have the option of choosing veggies/tofu, chicken, or beef. The beef didn't come with all the things I'm used to in boat noodles such as tripe, tendon, different cuts of braised beef, water spinach, or Chinese broccoli. It didn't even seem like blood was added either. It only came with 2 meatballs and beef slices that weren't tender and could have been cut smaller too. They need to add more different cuts of meats and other things to it. It tasted like Pho Lao. *Crying Tiger Salad - was okay as well. The flavoring was there but it wasn't tossed correctly since the toasted rice powder stayed on top of the meat. Also the meat was too overcooked so it was chewy and it also could've been cut smaller. They were thick big chewy pieces. *Thum Lao Style - not bad! I was expecting it to still be more on the bland Thai style but it was actually pretty good and sour the way I like it. It was still light in color meaning they didn't add crab paste for the dark coloring or shrimp paste. They did add pickled crabs though and it was pretty good and spicy. I also like how they "fauk"/chopped the papaya too instead of shredding so good job on that! *Khao Pad Naem - this was my mom's so I didn't try it. She said it was a bit salty but I'm assuming because of the protein she got which was the sour fermented pork which is the naem. It looked good though with the way they fried the egg.

    Photos
    Aroi Thai - Carlsbad - Appitizer

    Appitizer

    Aroi Thai - Carlsbad - Salad

    Salad

    Aroi Thai - Carlsbad - Chef's special

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    Chef's special

    Thai Style - Pad Thai- Shrimp

    Thai Style

    3.9(254 reviews)
    3.0 mi
    $$

    Pad Thai was tasty and not dry. Good portion size for lunch and prices are comparable to others in…read morethe area. During lunch time the service is a bit slow so might not be best if you're in a rush. Otherwise a solid option for lunch!

    The long lines at Thai Style is what caught my eye and after wandering throughout the Windmill Food…read moreHall, I ended up coming right back here. The menu isn't extensive but offers you the typical dishes you would hope to find at a Thai eatery. Here you will find tom yum soup, 3 different kind of stir fry noodle dishes, 3 fried rice options, and curry. I went with the shrimp pad thai, requesting for the peanuts to be placed on the side, followed by a few drinks. Cook time took a while. I did keep in mind that the flow of customers were plentiful and this just meant my food was made fresh. You are provided with a food beeper and are alerted to come up when your order is ready. The food itself looked good although the portion was a little skimpy. Maybe it was the large bowl that it is served in or maybe it was the food rush?? The noodles were coated completely in the tamarind sauce- so much that the dish was quite mushy. The shrimp was cooked well. 3 stars. The food is okay and the customer service is legit. The staff can be a little bit more generous with the napkins though...

    Photos
    Thai Style
    Thai Style - Pork belly with Egg on top,  Pad Kra Pow-Kai Dao

    Pork belly with Egg on top, Pad Kra Pow-Kai Dao

    Thai Style - We took some drinks from The bar across from the Thai spot, in fact we ate at the bar . The drinks were delicious

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    We took some drinks from The bar across from the Thai spot, in fact we ate at the bar . The drinks were delicious

    Thai Thai Restaurant

    Thai Thai Restaurant

    4.3(433 reviews)
    4.2 mi
    $$

    I can't believe I hadn't tried this place sooner. I went for lunch and had one of the best shrimp…read morepad Thai I've ever had. Definitely the best in Oceanside form what I've tried. The shrimp was juicy and the flavor was perfectly umami and had the right amount of fish sauce taste. The thai tea with boba was great as well I thought it was the perfect sweetness and not too overpowering. This lovely couple next to us asked if it was our first time there and recommended the honey roasted duck and I'm so glad they did because it was delicious! Perfectly crispy and juicy with such a nice sauce. Also, had the northern larb and it was pretty good and really good portion! I just think I'd get the northeastern larb instead next time as I'm used to and prefer the brighter flavors. Also, the pork skin chips they gave were stale unfortunately. The interior decor was also really cute and I quite liked the seating arrangement. People were also really nice there!

    This is my favorite Thai in Oceanside. I try to have different items every time I go and I have yet…read moreto be disappointed. Tonight I chose pumpkin curry with chicken with a 2 spice level. The service is always very good. I love the big metal water Cups that keep it cold and don't need refilling as often, especially with the spicy dishes. It had a lot of flavor and it was spicy. I had a cold last week and now all I have is cough so I was craving a little spice. It hit the spot. I also tasted the cashew nut chicken and that sauce is really good too. I still love the heart shaped rice. It's kind of far so I don't go often, but they are opening one in vista (much closer to me) so I'm excited for that. Perfect winter comfort food!

    Photos
    Thai Thai Restaurant - Clean, relaxing ambiance.

    Clean, relaxing ambiance.

    Thai Thai Restaurant - Yummy Papaya Salad (Lao Style)

    Yummy Papaya Salad (Lao Style)

    Thai Thai Restaurant - Lao Papaya Salad 10/10 Perfect balance of sweet-sour-salt-umami-pungency with all the right textures

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    Lao Papaya Salad 10/10 Perfect balance of sweet-sour-salt-umami-pungency with all the right textures

    Thai One On

    Thai One On

    3.7(421 reviews)
    8.3 mi
    $$

    Great news: Thai One On is now offering breakfast. They are starting with weekends and may add…read moremore days. 8:30am opening Saturday and Sunday. We tried it today and it was really great. Already have reviews here for dinner.

    Visited some friends in the area, and they brought us here. Unfortunately, I wasn't that impressed…read more I ordered the Pad Thai, and the noodles, along with the overall dish, were quite sticky. Having had authentic Pad Thai in Thailand, I found this version noticeably different, as traditional Pad Thai is typically not that sticky. I was also surprised to see BBQ ribs on the menu at a Thai restaurant. They were decent, though--tender enough to fall off the bone and flavorful enough to enjoy. The highlight of the meal was definitely the stuffed angel wings. They tasted freshly made and were well-seasoned. We also ordered egg rolls, but for $10, I felt the portion size, quantity, and overall quality did not offer great value. Service was good, and our server was attentive throughout the meal. As for the ambiance, I'd suggest avoiding Friday nights if you're looking for a relaxed dining experience. There was a live band playing, and the music was so loud that we could barely hear each other talk. It's probably not the best setting for a date night or a dinner where conversation is part of the experience.

    Photos
    Thai One On - Live Singer with Piano

    Live Singer with Piano

    Thai One On - Yellow Curry with Chicken

    Yellow Curry with Chicken

    Thai One On - Yum....extra dirty with bleu cheese olives, shaken to perfection!

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    Yum....extra dirty with bleu cheese olives, shaken to perfection!

    Mantra Raja - thai - Updated September 2026

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